Age Of Decay
by GrandmasterVenom
Summary: Follow the adventures of Nate Thurlow, another Meta human from the bus - affected when the flash returned form the speed force. Endowed with the powers of decay, he joins team flash in an attempt to do right by central city, as; CORROSION...


**_Age Of Decay_**

 _I normally don't do these, but I decided to do a flash fanfiction. All I'm doing, is adding a new meta human._

 _BACKSTORY: became meta when flash ca generally piecing together that the flash returned there after a crime._

 _POWERS; ability to decay anything in contact with/ within proximity, can age inanimate objects on contact/ in proximity, can use shadows to teleport_

 ** _Our story..._**

The bus drove down the crowded central city streets, and Nate sighed as he sat down and put his head against the window. He pulled the hood down on his lengthy overcoat, and put his messenger bag beside him. Out of habit, he surveyed the people on the bus – 13 others, counting the bus driver. He saw a few women – one such in a more than revealing dress, one wearing a black bison jacket. He saw men too, one slightly overweight - with an air of intelligence, one was in a suit – maybe a P.I, another was weeping, as if he'd been through something traumatic – not a break up or a family death, but something worse. He would've surveyed the others, hand the bus not been rocked side to side. He looked from his seat to see a large blue vortex, similar to the one that had formed over the city a few years ago. It crackled with electricity – red, yellow, blue, and purple. A split second later, a burning white splodge emerged, speeding away – trailing a yellow lightning trail. _The flash – he's back!!!_ Nate ran off the bus to see the vortex disappear, and the scorching trail left by the scarlet speedster – burning a trench into the tarmac. He smiled as he saw people surprised, happy, and confused. He brought out his camera, and took a picture of the crack in the road. Boy, would he have a story when he got back to the CCPN.

 ** _Three weeks later_**

Nate had DEFINITELY noticed something strange about himself after that day; when he was near things, after a while they looked mouldy; after wearing his clothes for a few weeks, they looked moth eaten and torn. His suspicions were only confirmed when, when he picked up an apple to eat it, it slowly began rotting in his hand. _I've got to find iris_. He grabbed his jacket, half expecting it to disintegrate in his hands. He practically willed it not to, and to his suppose, it didn't. He pulled on his leather gloves just in case. He rolled his bike out of the car park under his block of apartments, and set off down the road to the news agency.

Within a few minutes, he'd arrived, and found iris locking up for the evening. He sprinted over to her, being semi out of breath by the time he got to her, "Iris... We need to... Talk" he wheezed. She almost jumped at his appearance, before she recognized him. "Nate, what are you doing here – I was just locking up?". Having finally caught his breath, he stood up, "Can we talk somewhere not here? You still got a spare key to jitters?". "Yeah, let's go then" she said, a bit quizzically. He hopped on his motorcycle, and she put her hands on his shoulders. He started up the bike with a roar, and the tires squealed on the road as they drove a little too close to the speed limit.

Iris fished the spare key from her keyring, and Nate wasted no time rushing through the door. She closed it behind them, as he put his gloves and jacket on a table. "So... What did you want to talk about???" she asked, setting down her bag. She put her phone at the very top, in case she needed to call Barry. "When the flash returned a few weeks ago, I was on a bus – said bus practically hit a blue sparking portal that appeared in the road. All of a few moments later, the scarlet speedster does his thing, running off into the sunset. Life stayed normal, until a few days ago, when I noticed things that, to someone that isn't from central city, weren't exactly normal," he walked to the counter and picked up an apple, "just watch".

Iris looked on in shock as the apple seemed to age before her, going from a healthy granny smith, to a moulded apple core in a few seconds. "oh my god" she said, looking at the apple core. "I'm going to ask a favour – your blog helped inspire my trek into journalism/photography career, and I know you got a few "exclusive" interviews with the flash. I want to meet him, I know there have been meta humans in the past who've been good – and I know making things die isn't the most inspiring power, but I want to make a difference". Iris looked at her friend, as he put the gloves back on as a precaution. "Of course I'll help you, Nate".

Iris stepped outside jitters, and locked the door, as Nate put his example apple in the bin. She climbed on the back of his bike, as he climbed on and started it up. He looked off into the distance, as star labs – he found it ironic that despite some of the bad it had created, their greatest contribution would always be the flash. The drive took a few minutes, and Nate looked back at Iris, noticing the engagement ring on her finger. "Who's the lucky guy?" he asked, with a few ideas about who it was. "Barry..." she replied, smiling. He chuckled, thinking back to the lean bean CSI machine that was Barry Allen. "You two are a good match" he said, as the bike slowed to a stop. He looked around the empty car park that had three cars in it, "I don't know if I can park, it's crowded here. Iris laughed, glad to see that despite his new meta physiology, Nate's sense work humour was more than intact.

They walked through reception towards the lifts, and the doors closed. Nate recoiled slightly when he saw iris hit floor 600, but he relaxed when he realised that the board was split in half with a plus and a minus either side of the line. A short lift ride later, along with some minor chit chat, they arrived in a maze of corridors that led to a main room, which iris told him was "the cortex". Nate marvelled at some of the technology, as iris introduced him. "Guys, this is Nate. He is one of our bus meta humans. Nate, this is Cisco," she pointed at a Latin American man with long black hair, and a rock, papers scissors, lizard, Spock t-shirt, "this is Caitlin," she pointed to a woman in a professional dress, half looking at a tablet, "this is Harry," she pointed at a man who looked like Harrison Wells, but without the wheelchair, "And this is Barry" she pointed to a man wearing a plain shirt and cardigan. Nate looked at Harry, "I assume Harrison Wells, but not our Harrison Wells?" Harry gave an approving nod.

"So, what exactly can you do?" Cisco asked, looking Nate up and down. "I can make things decay, almost like death". For an example, he picked up a post-it note off the main desk, and they all watched as it slowly lost colour, before crumpling, and disintegrating. "Awesome!!!" Cisco yelled, inspecting Nate's hands, without touching them. "Relax, it's on my mental command, you can touch my hands" Nate said. "Thanks for coming to us, you made our job a lot easier" Barry said, as he pinned up a photo of Nate on a board. "I want to make a difference, and the flash is a good inspiration to that – or should I say you, Barry". Barry immediately looked at iris with a disapproved look, "For the record, I didn't say anything" iris said.

Barry looked back at Nate, "I'm a journalist – unlike others, when I put two and two together, I get four. Barry, it's no coincidence that you get hit by lightning, get put in a coma for nine months, and then when you awake – our scarlet speedster slowly starts appearing trailing – guess what – lightning" Barry moved to speak, but Nate cut him off, "Relax, I'm not going to tell anyone. Wouldn't be the heroic thing to do". Barry looked at him with a frown, but quickly softened into a smile. " I want to test your full capabilities, see what else you can do" Barry said, leading the team through the halls, to the speed lab.

 ** _One hour later_**

"PULL!" Nate yelled. Cisco threw a Frisbee, and it span around the room. Nate outstretched his hand, and focused on the Frisbee. In true comedic fashion, it curved back around towards Cisco's face. Putting his faith in Nate, he watched as the Frisbee disintegrated in front of him, completely turning to dust just before it would've hit his face. "awesome!!!" Nate yelled, as Cisco clutched his heart. "That was TOO close for comfort!!!" he yelled. "I was going for a sense of style... Plus, I wanted to see if you'd chicken out!" Nate yelled, from the other side of the room. He walked over to Cisco, and they walked over to Caitlin who was monitoring some data. "Your heart, blood and oxygen levels are extremely healthy – you're in peak physical condition" she said.

Cisco and Nate walked down to the cortex, as Nate coined ideas for a costume, "So far I have two ideas; a grim reaper/ reaper from Overwatch costume, or, something really torn and ruined – like Ragman, the guy who worked with the arrow". Cisco thought them both over, "I'll see what I can whip up – I'll have to find some form of non-bio-degradable material, so that your powers won't affect it, but I think I have a good name for you – Corrosion..." He did a little jazz hands wave, ultimately failing to give any effect. "I like it... Hey, what do you think about me using a sickle on a chain – Not a sharp one, just sharp enough to leave a few cuts and bruises". "You know, I think that's a good idea... I'll get right on it" Cisco patted him on the shoulder, and ran off to his lab. Nate shrugged, and walked on into the cortex.

"What did Cisco name you" everyone said in a bored tone. Nate got into his best heroic pose, "is it a bird, is it a plane, oh it's a speck on dirt on the window – hey look, it's CORROSION!!!" he did a few over exaggerated flex poses, sending the team into a fit of giggles, "From what I can tell, I guess I should be surprised that Cisco let me give him design ideas for a costume???" Nate asked, and Barry did a mock look of shock, "I didn't even get to chose mine, he just made it – scratch that, he made four costumes. It's a good thing though; one was blown up, one was melted, one was disintegrated – I'm surprised he hasn't made me fight crime nude". Nate laughed, as he looked at the mannequin holding the flash suit.

 ** _One week later_**

Cisco yanked off the tarp covering the mannequin, and Nate almost fainted with joy. Before him was a patchwork trench coat of town fabrics and leathers, with a large hood made of a few layers of torn Hessian and burlap. A set of gloves were on the hands, some fingers fingerless, some made from leathers, and others made from construction grade material. The trousers were made of a few sets of torn denim, leather, and sweatshirt material. The boots rose to the knee, in a leather face patchwork of materials. The trousers and arms had elbow and kneepads made of melted metals, and under the hood lie a bandana that rose to the nose. Finally, at his coat side lay a clip, on it was a chain wrapped loosely, with a spiked sickle. "Holy. Crap. I love it..." Nate said, looking at Cisco with an open jaw. "There's more" Cisco said, raising the sleeve. Inside were shorter chains with small hooks on the end. From behind the mannequin, he brought out a moulded, dented, cracked skull mask, with dark green emissive eyes.

"Wow, you really went the extra mile with the details" Nate said, as he walked behind a screen to try on the suit. "Well, I've seen Barry's suit go through enough to get inspiration, and I took a few concepts of death and destruction from films, and I got this. I actually came up with it whilst playing mortal combat". Nate walked out from the careen, and Cisco took a step back to admire his work. He looked as Nate withdrew the two arm chains, wrapping them around his lower forearms. "You look... Haunting..." Cisco said, shuddering. Nate placed on the mask, and spoke through a distorted, cold voice, "who do we scare first?". Cisco chuckled, as he rubbed his hands together with a overly dramatic, maniacal laugh.

Caitlin walked through the vast corridors, tapping away on a tablet. She felt a cold air around her, and stopped in her tracks. She turned around worriedly, the clinking of chains surrounding her. "Who's there?" she asked, putting her tablet on the floor. Her skin started to turn more pale, and her hair slowly white. She slowly turned around, and almost jumped to the ceiling, when she saw a figure wrapped in torn clothes, hanging from chains. "Boo!". She shrieked, and fired a few icicles at him, but he jumped to the floor, yanking off his mask, "Jesus Christ, take a joke – Caitlin". Caitlin's hair turned normal again, her skin regaining it's slightly less pale colour.

She heard the evil, joking cackle of Cisco, as he walked out holding up his phone. "That was not funny" Caitlin said, trying miserably to stifle her laughter. "Oh man, we got you good" Cisco said, putting his phone away, high-fiving Nate. Caitlin looked Nate up and down, admiring the costume, "So, that's why Cisco hasn't been around much. I have to say, that does look good on you – it seems to match your personality". "Thanks, I like it myself. Nice to know that I can wear it without disintegrating it first". Before they could continue the chit chat, an alert sounded on Cisco's phone.

"What brilliantly Ill timed villain is it this time?" Cisco said as he sat down at his station. "Roy bivilo, AKA the prism. Currently throwing a rage-a-rama in the bank on 53rd" iris said, bringing up the map. Barry walked over to his suit, and in a flash of lightning, he left the cortex in a flurry of paper. Iris pulled up the CCTV of the bank.

Barry ran into the bank to find security guards rising one another around, customers beating each other up, and the prism sporting a duffel bag filled to the brim with cash. Barry ran to apprehend him, but the rage-a-holic whipped around, his eyes flashing red as they did. Barry tried to shut his eyes, but it was too late. His pupils flashed red too, and he turned ominously to the crowds. A security guard looked at Barry, firing a few rounds. He leaned out of the way, turning them around in the air. Suddenly, the bullets disintegrated, and a breach appeared. From it, stepped Nate, Caitlin in her killer frost outfit, And Cisco in his vibe outfit. "Oh, smegging hell" Nate said...

 _I quite liked writing this, and I should have another chapter up soon. In regards to other fanfictions, they should be receiving new chapters soon. My main focuses are YJ: Homecoming, and Irish Overwatch shenanigans,_ _GrandmasterVenom, out..._


End file.
